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Women work without a break for their families, society, and friends all through the year. So, on IWD 2016, LEAD conducted their 3rd annual "Recognizing the Unrecognized", where women in our society who are rarely recognized but are responsible for important work were recognized for their contributions, such as cleaning railway stations, bus stands, picking household trash, selling vegetables etc. LEAD and LEADers believe that, without these women, our communities would come to a standstill.

The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. To that purpose, the LEaders Accelerating Development (LEAD) Program of the Deshpande Foundation was born. LEAD develops innovative and entrepreneurial thinking within college students by exposing them to social issues, encouraging them to volunteer their time and effort into the community, and igniting their latent talent to come up with creative solutions. Through this unique platform provided by LEAD, students are gaining the skills and confidence needed to transform their visions into realities. Armed with guidance, exposure, networking opportunities, financial assistance, and encouragement from LEAD, students from throughout 75 colleges and 14 districts are unleashing their leadership potential to go on inspiring and improving those around them.

The 6th Yuva Summit, an international youth conference on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship hosted by the Leaders Accelerating Development program, began in Hubballi on 6th February with Mr. Ravindranath Gumaste, Managing Director of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd., cutting the ceremonial ribbon that let the hundreds of attendees, including students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and honoured guests, into the event grounds.

On 24th January, 107 promising students from across Karnataka and neighbouring states descended upon the VTU campus in Belagavi to mark the kick-off of the 5th annual LEAD Prayana. These students, along with 32 beginning their journey on the same day in Nizamabad, were selected from a pool of almost 500 applicants. LEAD Prayana, which began in 2012 with just 63 students, is an annual leadership journey that takes almost 150 passionate students between the ages of 18-26 throughout India on a 14-day tour across Karnataka...

I am passionate about science, especially physics. My affair with Science started during my childhood and it deepened in my high school when I started participating in Science exhibitions with my models. During Pre University Education, I built the Levitation Train with few of my friends and grabbed prizes at several competitions. “Physics of the Impossible” by Michio Kaku was a book that exposed me further to the vastness of the science and motivated me to start a science group called “Blackbody Science Group (Which Absorbs All Wavelength of Intuitive Minds)”. This group engages in creating interest about science among government and physically disabled school children.

I joined LEAD two years ago because I wanted to develop and
promote myself.My long- term goal
was to start my own firm.I knew
that I still had a lot of growth, but I was lacking the support that I needed
to really push myself, as well as my ideas, forward.

My first project, Joy of Giving Week, was a good opportunity
for me to practice my communication and my outreach skills.During Joy of Giving Week, we set up a
stall at my college to collect funds for HIV affected and orphaned children of
the Mahesh Foundation.During Joy
of Giving Week, I set up a team, and together we approached all of the students
and several staff and faculty members to collect funds and other items to the
children.After one week, I am
proud to say that we successfully collected Rs. 10000 and over 80 articles of
clothing.Donating the funds and
the clothing to the children is actually one of my favorite memories in LEAD so
far.The students were
cheering for us, and we danced with them.They were so happy, and we were glad that we could help them.

Some other initiatives I have implemented include a debate
competition, in which we discussed provocative social topics such as women
harassment and child marriage.I
also organized a guest speaker session for the students of my college with Aman
Jain, the author of The Naked Highway.Additionally, I set up a forum board for the LEAD GIT Cell to keep
LEAD students more informed about what is happening in LEAD and upcoming
events.

I have several ideas for new LEAD projects as well.I have a technical idea, which also has
the potential to turn into an entrepreneurial project.I expect that LEAD’s new program,
LEADnovators, will help me a lot with this.

The transformation I have seen in myself since joining LEAD
is significant.I never used to
think that any of this work could have been done by me.I never thought that I alone could
achieve all of this.My mentality
before was that I always needed other people to help me.My self-confidence was definitely
lacking.After successfully
implementing so many different initiatives, I can clearly see the power within
myself.My communication skills
have also become stronger; I can present myself, and my ideas, in a much better
way.

What I like most about LEAD is that it is giving students
with a one-of-a-kind platform for all students.Students with innovative ideas have the opportunity to turn
their ideas into reality.And for
other students, LEAD ignites them to come out beyond themselves and their
limits, and to do something.